Evaluating the effects of Lake Urmia’s revival practices on the environmental resilience of local rural settlements

Due to various reasons, Urmia Lake has been exposed to be dried in recent years and has severely affected the coastal areas and neighboring ecosystems and more importantly, the surrounding cities and villages. Considering that a large human population lives in the area around Urmia Lake and the livelihood of settlements in West and East Azerbaijan provinces is mostly based on agriculture, if the lake completely dries up and environmental and ecological crises occur, the economy of these areas will face with great problems. One of the basic solutions to reduce the vulnerability of social systems and thus strengthen the stability of local communities against environmental crises is to increase the resilience of these communities against the disturbance in ecological systems. Resilience is the ability of a social or ecological system to absorb and face disorder or disruption, so that it can maintain basic functional structures, re-organizational capacity, and adaptive capacity in the face of changes and tensions. The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the impact of Urmia lake restoration measures on the level of environmental resilience from the point of view of local communities.

The research approach is applied, descriptive, correlational and analytical. The method of data collection was carried out by using two methods of library studies and field monitoring and completing the questionnaire. The indicators for measuring the resilience of local communities were determined using exploratory interviews and review of literature (ethnography). The statistical population of the research is all heads of households living in Aghdash village. Aghdash village is one of the villages of Miandoab countyin West Azerbaijan province of Iran. The number of sample households was estimated through Cochran's statistic using the variance of the important characteristic and the calculated standard error of 62 households (utilizers). A questionnaire was used to estimate selected indicators from the point of view of local communities living in Aghdash village. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for different parts of the questionnaire was obtained on an average of 78%, which is in the desired range. It should be noted that the Likert scale was used to evaluate the impact of Urmia lake restoration measures on the resilience of local communities. In order to complete questionnaires related to households through the stratified random sampling method; with the priority of the village elders, local experts and active people related to the restoration of Urmia Lake were selected and finally, the household questionnaire was randomly completed for 62 household heads. Finally, the desired indicators were estimated using the usual methods.

From the point of view of local communities; in the environmental dimension, the actions of the restoration bureau of the Urmia Lake have resulted an increase in environmental awareness and an increase in the dry-farming. Also, in the field of livestock and rangeland management, the actions of the restoration bureau of the Urmia Lake have been evaluated as moderate. The average score of the examined indicators was 2.65, so the effectiveness of the actions of the rehabilitation headquarters in the environmental dimension is in the very low to medium range. Based on the results of the factor analysis model; the indicators of cropping pattern modification, modern irrigation systems, watershed management operations, water resources management, production performance, percentage of vegetation cover, land salinity control, environmental awareness and rangeland and livestock management were identified as 5 important factors, which in total explain 69.22 % of variance changes in the resilience of communities as a result of the actions of the restoration bureau of the Urmia Lake. It seems that considering the various consequences of the drying up of Urmia Lake in the region and the solutions proposed in various researches and considering the type of actions taken by the the restoration bureau of the Urmia Lake in the region; the indicators used in the research have been able to evaluate the actions of this bureau in order to improve environmental resilience. Executive organizations can use the indicators introduced in this research to improve the condition of villages affected by the water crisis and drought, and improve the resilience of local communities and move towards stability in all aspects of sustainable development.